Newbie guide for the net install of SuSe 8.2

This is my newbie guide for the net install of SuSe 8.2 Read
through this entirely so you can familiarize yourself with the
steps, and get the data you need to finish your install.

Since SuSe doesn't offer free iso download versions of SuSe, I
decided to write this guide on how to do an ftp install (net
install) of SuSe 8.2 since that is something that they do offer for
free, but don't offer support. They do offer a "guide" to
installing SuSe from the net, but it lacks detail and seems
intentionally cryptic to me. I wanted to write a step by step guide
to make things simpler so others don't have to search and search
for hints on how it's done.

After I had the boot iso downloaded, I burned that as an image.
(I won't go into detail here, but there are many helpful tutorials
on the net if you need help with that.)

Next, simply insert the disk into your computer, and reboot. You
should be rewarded with a screen that displays some welcome message
and then be forwarded on to the boot options screen. At this screen
you should be able to choose from Installation

Choose Installation --- then hit the enter key.

You should get a {Loading Linux Kernel...............} and then
proceed to the next screen.

You should get to a MAIN MENU screen. Several options there.
Starting with Settings. System Information. Kernel Modules. Start
Installation. Exit/Reboot. Power Off.

If you need to load other modules do so here before proceeding.
When that's done go back to the main menu and choose START
INSTALLATION. Then Start Installation again....... hmmmmmmm Then
choose the source medium (NETWORK). Then choose FTP. Then to enable
your card to access the internet you need to choose AUTO CONFIG VIA
DHCP or do it manually. I choose auto, since I'm on a dsl router
that does DHCP.

Next is the hard part. You have to enter the IP ADDRESS of the
FTP server. It took me several trys to figure this out. But after a
little research, I found that the IP address can be had via the DIG
command on Linux.

You must use the dig command in a terminal to find the IP
address of whatever FTP server your using. I was using the
ftp.rpmfind.net FTP server. Using the dig command : dig
ftp.rpmfind.net returns two IP addresses. 216.254.0.38 and
194.199.20.114 Enter one of these numbers into the box asking for
the IP address. After hitting enter it asks you if you want to
specify a username and password, just say no. Then it asks if you
want to use a Http proxy. Say NO again.

If things have went right so far it should say "trying to
connect to ftp server". Once connected it says "Please enter the
directory on the server"

For the rpmfind.net ftp server the correct entry would be:
linux/6/SuSE-Linux/i386/8.2/

You should then see a small screen that says "Loading data into
ramdisk (45800 kB) WOOT..... the hard part of the install, getting
connected, is over!!

After that data is downloaded into the RAM disk, you will be
greeted with the YaST Installation and System administration
program.

The first thing you get to do is choose your language again.
Then Yast detects hardware and checks to see if you want to load
those drivers/modules. Choosing yes to detected hardware seems like
a no brainer to me... so choose yes. The rest of the installation
seems fairly straightforward and should be easy. The YaST installer
has a very NICE partitioning tool.

At a minimum, you should probably have these partitions.

/boot small 50 mb swap 500 mb unless you have alot of ram
/root 2+ gigs at least
/home the rest of the hard drive...or dedicate more to other
partitions and root.

The net install once it begins does take some time, even with
fast connections. The servers are all running and alot of time are
running at full capacity. My connection, installing KDE and the
rest of the default install, takes about 4 hours or a little more.
I set it up to start downloading the packages right before I go to
bed

Wake up and finish the install, setting root password, users,
graphic card settings, and that's about it. Reboot and you get
rewarded with a SuSe 8.2 Linux Desktop workstation !! I'm very
impressed with the ease of use of the SuSe enviroment. I look
forward to using it more and more.

I'm very new at Linux, I have just installed this SuSe 8.2 and I wish I could find a free downloadable manual somewhere over the net?...After all isnt Linux famous for being an open source ? So..any suggestion is well appreciated...email me at [email protected] thank you

Thu Feb 24 17:10:03 2005: 65 TonyLawrence

It's unlikely that anyone will email you. If you post a question at a group, you are expected to read the same group for an answer. Morever, questions like this properly should go to the Forum, not here.

What happens then? Is there a ticker tape parade and heartfelt thanks from the computer it has reached? No, my friends, there is not. The poor packet is immediately gutted, stripped of its protective layers and tossed into the hungry maw of whatever application (mail, a webserver, whatever) it belongs to. (Tony Lawrence)

Linux source code is freely and easily available to all of us. Understanding it is much harder. (Tony Lawrence)